:grouphug: I agree and it's not fair :( But to try to give hope, if she does a year at They Have A Pulse So They Qualify For Admission college, her excellent academic ability and industrious habits will get her a great recommendation from the professors for transfer to somewhere much better. She really will be the big fish in a small pond. She can possibly get extension work to better prepare her for transfer if she picks her professors wisely.

I'd back off for a week or so and do some geometry or something completely unrelated. Then I'd come back to this and try again. If it still didn't go well I'd back off again. Right now he's probably so frustrated he's just shut down.

Music appreciation may not be light depending on the instructor. One class is a better idea. I would actually avoid health unless you really want her learning about sexual health in a college class at 14.

It is not so much questions that nobody in the class can get right, but questions which will challenge the students in the class who are working at the highest level. What is so sacred about the 90-80-70-60 scale for grading that it cannot be abandoned in favor of another scale?

This is one big reason I shifted my university classes to spend more time thinking about the material and less time working examples. Sometimes I get complaints about 'not enough examples before you expect us to think about it', but hey, you can't please everyone.

I don't really consider this to be grading on a curve, but more scaling the grades to an appropriate level. I have no issues with writing difficult tests and then scaling the grades appropriately. Strictly speaking a curve should mean making it fit a normal distribution whether or not it's naturally that way (which is what I don't like).

Here's a pair of cheap, out of print but available used books that were designed for people like you: http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Algebra-Self-Teaching-Second-Edition/dp/0471530123/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=11D2KKT8YMC1AD510VAH http://www.amazon.com/Geometry-Trigonometry-Calculus-Self-Teaching-Guides/dp/0471775584/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top I'd follow them up with this (also cheap) book by an outstanding mathematician: http://www.amazon.com/Precalculus-mathematics-nutshell-Geometry-trigonometry/dp/0760706603/ref=pd_sim_b_6?ie=UTF8&refRID=11D2KKT8YMC1AD510VAH These will get you ready for calculus. I'm not sure if you're planning to try to place out of calculus, but Gilbert Strang's calculus course is available free from mit, including the entire textbook as a single pdf and answers to odd-numbered problems: http://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-18-001-calculus-online-textbook-spring-2005/textbook/

Staying with the same publisher all through high school is overrated. If he did great with Horizons I'd go back and then re-evaluate afterwards.

You know, it's kinda funny, but welding was exactly what I was thinking of. One of my friends did a welding certificate and worked for a while as a welder before going to college for something completely unrelated.

I think if you DO graduate him this year, counting 8th grade as his freshman year and transcripting whatever you honestly could from then would be the best option. If he's burned out on academics, is there any reason to keep him in HS another year? Are there any benefits that he could access from being in HS? Does he have anything left he wants to learn in HS? Could he get free DE credits to do a vocational course at the CC if he wants to work for a while? If the answer to all of those is 'no', I really can't see a reason not to graduate him.

I hate grading on a curve. I don't see a problem with it if there are sections with say, 500+ students in them, or something. But in a 30 student class, statistical anomalies make the idea of a normal distribution essentially rubbish. If 10 talented students enroll together, the idea that less than half of them can get A's is patently ridiculous. So I don't curve and I explain why they really don't want a curve. But I do scale -- if I realize that a problem I wrote was very bad I may throw it out and rescale the grades, or something similar. I keep telling them that I'd love to see a semester when everyone earns A's and B's, but so far it hasn't happened.

If you pay off yours first, it would be possible to let your kids get student loans with the understanding that you'll help them pay them back as soon as you finish paying off your own, kwim? For that reason, I'd continue paying off yours first so that you're not paying interest on it.

Yes, that is essentially the same chart I linked. I am not arguing that this kid is a normal weight. I'm sorry that you're misunderstanding my statements. I am saying that she is 15-20 lbs underweight, not 40. I have said so repeatedly. I am at a loss to where you are getting that I am saying that she is a normal weight. What I *am* saying is that I don't believe this is rush-them-to-a-hospital weight in a teen who is gaining, not losing, and has always been below the growth curve. It would be very alarming in a teen who had been in the 10th percentile for BMI as a child and had dropped down to the 1st now.

Not according to the CDC, for teenagers, as I keep repeating. Here is the BMI-for-age percentile chart, also available in the link that I pasted earlier. http://nccd.cdc.gov/dnpabmi/ResultGraph.aspx?age=156&gender=2&ht=66&wt=100&method=0&dob=1/1/2001&dom=1/1/2014&inchtext=0&wttext=0&pagetype=graph 18.5 BMI is actually the 52nd percentile for 13 year old girls. The 5th percentile (which is when they are considered medically underweight) is 15.3.

WTF? Here, let me enter the data into the teen chart for you. http://nccd.cdc.gov/dnpabmi/Result.aspx?&dob=1/1/2001&dom=1/1/2014&age=156&ht=66&wt=100&gender=2&method=0&inchtext=0&wttext=0 In case the link isn't working: I entered 5 6, 100 lbs, 13 years. Based on the height and weight entered, the BMI is 16.1, placing the BMI-for-age at the 12th percentile for girls aged 13 years 0 months. This child has a healthy weight. I am SPECIFICALLY responding to your statement that you cannot find a height weight chart that gives a weight under 120 lbs at 5 6. Again, those height weight charts you are looking at are DESIGNED for adults. She is underweight but not 40 lbs underweight.

Tania, I'm not going to quote to respect your privacy. One important point about what happened with your dd was that she suddenly fell percentiles in the BMI. This doesn't seem to be what's happening to the OP's dd -- it seems she's been off the bottom of the growth charts all her life from what I can read from the OP. I'm also not seeing the 'safe foods' and 'fear foods' that you're talking about, and I just went back through the OP's posts to see. She talked about her dd not really liking protein snacks but that she's willingly drinking chocolate milk to increase her calorie consumption. I definitely do think the OP should keep doing what she's doing to increase consumption and put some weight on her dd. I just don't think she needs to put her in the hospital until she gets that weight on her -- not unless there's more information that hasn't been shared.

Because you are looking on weight height charts that are designed for adults. These do NOT FIT TEENS.

I didn't say it was an ok weight. I just said that she's not 40 lbs underweight as you kept claiming. Some people just are genetically super skinny. It runs in my family as well (although not through me) and my mother and sister were both in the 1st percentile for BMI until they were in their early 20s, despite eating like crazy. Eventually they put on the weight. If she looks and acts healthy I'd trust the doctors who've actually seen and evaluated her.

Yes. She is 15 lbs underweight (I used a different birthday than you), not 40. That makes a big difference. (ETA: Possibly 20 if she's almost 14. Still not 40 lbs underweight). Furthermore, OP stated that she has already seen a doctor and the doctor is aware of her low BMI and not concerned.

She is not 40 lbs underweight, check on a BMI chart that's intended for teens, not adults.

I've never *heard* of it! But it looks awesome and I've added it to my amazon wishlist!

I especially like the bolded. One big ugly problem per day is so much more manageable and yet will keep it fresh in her head.

We used to read books in the attic by candlelight. My mother tried and tried but we kept stealing candles to play with them. She finally resorted to posting a picture of a burn victim on the refrigerator to remind us to be careful.

The first two semesters of a college 3 semester series are covered in calculus BC, so it's not beyond unless you are in the third semester already. If you are in semester 1 or 2, it is quite possible that a calc BC tutor would be able to help you, and they are easier to find. Here are some other resources people have used to find tutors: Ask the professor to recommend a former student who did well and proceeded in math. I picked up some tutoring gigs this way. Craigslist or similar services, although I would recommend meeting in a coffeeshop or something. Ask the departmental administrative assistant for reliable former students who can help. If there's a nearby research university, ask them if they can ask the graduate students for someone who can tutor (I used to see emails like this all the time).

I really really wouldn't switch away in the middle of a program that's working now. You don't have to follow the same approach all through high school. You just have to not swap to something that's WILDLY different. The scope and sequence are different within many algebra 1 programs but most of them will prepare a student for most of the algebra 2 programs. Changing mid-year is much more likely to cause issues. I'd start researching geometry and algebra 2 programs now to find one you and she can live with, and I think your idea of doing both over 2 years is great. For the spiral, am I right that she forgets stuff when she hasn't seen it in a while? I actually think you could make a more mastery-based program (such as lial's) work for you as follows: Do chapter 1. Do chapter 2. Do chapter 1 review problems. Do chapter 3. Do chapter 2 review problems. Do chapter 1 test. etc. It would take longer to finish that way because you might have to do some reteaching, but it would help to add in more review.